THE ENDIVE CORAL. 751 



baskets in a quarter of an hour, though night had set in, and the only method of 

 discovering the creatures was by the touch. It is perhaps more variable in colour than 

 any of the British Actiniae, the body taking all imaginable hues, passing from bright 

 scarlet to leaf-green, gradating from scarlet to crimson, from crimson to orange, from orange 

 to yellow, and from yellow to green. The spherical beads around its mouth are more 

 persistent in colour than any other parts of the animal, being almost invariably a 

 rich blue, just like a set of turquoises placed around the disc. These, however, are 

 occasionally subject to change, and lose all colour, looking like pearls rather than 

 turquoises. Even the same individual is subject to change of colour, being evidently 

 influenced by various external conditions, such as light and shade, food, and the purity 

 of the water in which it is placed. 



In the aquarium it is wonderfully prolific, surrounding itself with many a brood of tiny 

 young, whose minute forms are seen settled around their parent, opening their tentacles 

 with a kind of competent air that has something of the ludicrous about it. The 

 Beadlet is something of a wanderer, and will not only crawl slowly over the glassy sides 

 of the aquarium, but, when it has reached the surface of the water, will invert itself so 

 that the tentacles are downwards, make its base hollow, and float away, trusting itself 

 freely to this shallow boat. 



The GEM-PIMPLET may be recognised by the double series of large and small warty 

 protuberances placed alternately on its body. There are six white bands on the stem, 

 and the tentacles are thick, marked with white, oval spots. Like the preceding species, 

 the Gem-Pimplet is not local, though gathering in considerable numbers in certain 

 favoured spots. Even when closed, with all the tentacles withdrawn, it may at once be 

 known by the six bands of white which radiate from the orifice, and the great resem- 

 blance which its body bears to an echinus stripped of its spines. 



LEAVING the sea-anemones, we now proceed to the next tribe, the Caryophylliaceae, 

 in which there are many tentacles, in two or more series, and the cells many-rayed. 

 Many of these beings deposit a corallum ; but out of our British species, more than one- 

 third are without this chalky support. 



The FUNGIA, or SEA-MUSHROOM, is so called from its great resemblance to a mushroom, 

 the expanded disc and delicate lamelhe having a singularly fungine form. The hard 

 corallum of this genus is not fixed, but the creature is protected from the violence of 

 the waves by its habit of lying in clefts of rocks, or in the deep cavities of coral reefs, 

 so that it enjoys free access of water, without the danger of being carried away by the 

 currents or dashed ashore by the tempest. 



When young, however, the Fungiae are affixed for a time, sometimes on rocks, and 

 sometimes on the stony remains of their own kinds, being attached to a stem which 

 gradually vanishes as the creature increases in age. While in this state, they bear some 

 resemblance to the genus Caryophyllia. Though all possessing the same general cha- 

 racteristics, they are not all circular, some being oval, and others bearing no small resem- 

 blance to slugs. The entire corallum is surrounded by the soft substance of the Fungia, 

 which envelops it below as well as above. 



The examples given in the illustration exhibit the aspect of the Fungia under several 

 conditions, showing the fully expanded tentacles, the ordinary appearance when living, 

 .and the lifeless skeleton or corallum. Most of the Fungia are found in the Indian seas, 

 especially among the coral-beds. 



WE now pass to another group of these curious beings. The ENDIVE CORAL is 

 so. called from the resemblance which its corallum bears to the crumpled leaves of that 

 vegetable. The animal has no tentacles, and the cells are small, conical, and rather 

 oblique. The corallum is fixed, sharply edged, and expanded from the base to the tip a 

 peculiarity which has earned it the specific title of Pavonia, or Peacock's-tail Coral. 

 All the living members of this pretty genus are to be found in the East and West 

 Indian seas. 



The three figures which occupy the left hand of the illustration represents one of 



